Women are better at investing than men, study says

Female investors earned higher returns and saved more of their pay to fund retirement accounts than men, even though most women didn’t think they would, according to a recently released Women and Money Survey from Fidelity Investments.

The investment gains of women topped their male counterparts by 0.4% last year, according to an analysis of more than eight million client accounts at Fidelity. Similarly, an analysis of 14 million employer retirement accounts that are serviced by Fidelity found that women saved 9% of their paychecks in 2016, while men set aside 8.6% for their golden years.

While those differences might not seem like much, the combination of better returns and higher savings can add up to bigger account balances in the future. For example, a woman with a $75,000 salary who starts to invest at age 30 and saves 9% each year and earns a 6.4% annual return would have a portfolio worth nearly $200,000 more at age 67 than a man who saves 8.6% with an annual return of 6%, according to the Fidelity survey.